16 April 2019

Hannah O’Brien: ‘Be prepared to be part of a team’

Welcome to the next in our series of Curtis Brown 120 blog posts, these blogs include exclusive interviews with authors, agents and publishers; writing tips; industry insights – and much more besides.

Today the CB120 team talk to the wonderful Hannah O’Brien (@HannahGamon), the Marketing Director for HarperFiction and Avon (HarperCollins). Among other things, Hannah talks about her first experiences in publishing, gives advice to her younger self, and reveals her go-to book recommendations…

What was the first book you ever worked on?Scandalous by Tilly Bagshawe! I remember spending hours honing the copy for an internal giveaway, lugging all the books down in the lift and standing in reception shouting, ‘FULL OF SEX AND SCANDAL. GET THE PERFECT READ FOR YOUR SUMMER HOLIDAY’. I think more copies got picked up after I left the stand…

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?Be prepared to be part of the team! Being a writer isn’t just writing the book (although that is the part which I am in awe of!), it is also being your own publicist and marketer. Hone your pitch, sell your idea, network.

What (non-Harper Collins!) debut novel campaign have you been really impressed with recently?I am constantly grateful to work in an industry with so many talented people and am always in awe of their brilliant campaigns. I thought The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock publishing was sumptuous and set the bar for creativity! It has only just been published, but I am constantly impressed by what I’ve seen of the Queeniecampaign. The fact that This is Going to Hurtcontinues to ride high in the charts so long after release is testament to a fantastic campaign too.

To find out more about the Curtis Brown First Novel Prize, click here.